Francois Boué, Malachi Farrell, Seamus Farrell, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Skylar Haskard, Wendell Kling, Norbert Schwontkowski, Jelena Tomasevic, Zlatan Vukosavljevic

November 12, 2006 - January 7, 2007

Performance by Wendell Kling November 12th at 7 pm

Press release

Thrust Projects is excited to present Collapsible Monuments, a group exhibition about how we encounter the world, not necessarily in the grand scheme, but in specific places at specific moments. It imposes on its audience a total engagement in piecing together various monuments, from monoliths to testaments, from mementos to shrines. Collapsible Monuments involves a exploration of an "open" situation through the notion of memory and site-specific works. It is as much an act of resistance to the current concept of security as a desirable, attainable "thing," which relies on the saturation of social space by fear, as it is an invitation to bear witness to the small acts of courage that are incited by remembering what is important to us as individuals.

The artists participating in Collapsible Monuments vary in almost every aspect of form and content. The individual works challenge their audience to be present in the moment they are experiencing, whether it's choosing which of Seamus Farrell's sculptural forms to walk through, watching Wendell Kling's toothpicks ablaze and collapsing, or staring back into Norbert Schwontkowski's painting of a strange Arab woman's gaze. The questions surrounding identity and place, both tangible and intangible, come up over and over, from Malachi Farrell's site-specific installation of shooting pistolets, exploring the dilemma of who is shooting whom, to Francois Boué's work "Amor Vacui" (or Love of Emptiness), filmed on the Lower East Side. Iain Forysyth & Jane Pollard's video of youth discussing love and loss, Skylar Haskard's Bono images, Zlatan Vukosavljevics' collage ensemble, and Jelena Tomasevic's photograph of feminine cliché examine the questions of self and representation raised by Collapsible Monuments .